


Say What You Need To Say

by Nevcolleil



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M, Shooting Star, episodeAU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-13
Updated: 2013-04-13
Packaged: 2017-12-08 09:08:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/759607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevcolleil/pseuds/Nevcolleil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blaine isn't in the choir room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say What You Need To Say

Blaine doesn't think that he will ever clearly remember that day... A combination of how quickly things devolved into chaos after that second shot, and remembered fear, have already driven most of the memories from his mind. 

It was an unremarkable morning, Blaine remembers that. A series of classes that Blaine doesn't have to try too hard in, broken up by time spent with Sam or Tina and fulfilling his duties as Cheerio head captain. Just another normal day in a normal week - or, as normal as a week gets in glee club. (Which means, this week, watching Ryder serenade a stranger - and then accuse everyone of "catfishing" him, watching Brittany serenade her _cat_ , and then being there for Sam after Brittany's dumped him for Lord Tubbington.)

Blaine can't tell you what he had for breakfast that morning... or who he spoke to last before stepping into the boys' restroom and hearing the first shot fired.

But he remembers every second spent in the bathroom stall after that, crouching on top of a toilet and burying his face in the crook of his arm to keep himself quiet. Putting his cell phone on silent with shaking fingers and thinking about his parents... (Again his life had been put in danger, and this time it had nothing to do with the preferences his parents still don't understand.) About Tina... Who soon texted Blaine a frantic response to his 'where r u ?' that made him feel weak with relief. ('Courtyard. Police everywhere. WHERE R U??')

Blaine remembers thinking about Sam and the rest of his friends in glee, about Mr. Schue and Coach Beiste (they were all in the choir room when Blaine stepped out) and feeling the first sting of tears at the back of his eyes. Were they still in the choir room? _Was the shooter_? Blaine comforted/horrified himself by thinking 'no'... There would have been more than two shots if the shooter had started there. There were so many targets in the room just then... Artie and Kitty and Brittany and Sam... Ryder and Marley and Jake and Unique (and Sam). Blaine had to bite his lip when he thought about Sam and his being-

And then his phone flashed in his hand. Through his tears, he didn't even see who it was, but in a panic Blaine texted back, 'Sam?'

A moment and then: 'This is Artie. We're in the choir room. Me Schue Beiste Sam Brit Jake Marley Ryder Unique.' And next: 'U and Tina?'

Blaine replied, 'Tina outside. Boys restroom.'

Things had been quiet since the second shot. Blaine hadn't heard anyone out in the halls (not that he could in the stall) and he hadn't heard any more guns. Everybody seemed to be accounted for except Joe and Sugar, and then it felt like the third shot went off in Blaine's chest, and his phone flashed again and he read, 'Bro this is sam i'm gonna come get you'

Blaine hardly felt himself move as he texted, 'what? No'

And then, because this was so important, Blaine couldn't even get his head around it, he texted three more times, in succession.

'NO'  
'Don't u dare'  
'Artie don't let him'

Just walking across the hall, to the girls' restroom, would have been dangerous enough for Sam with some crazy person out there, armed and ready. But the boys' room is all the way down the hall from the choir room. The thought of Sam venturing out from behind the safety of a locked door - and for Blaine - at that distance... made Blaine's blood run cold. Brave, sweet, amazing Sam-

'I'm fine,' Blaine typed, although he wasn't sure that was true. He was alone. He was terrified. This might _really_ be the end of the world that Brittany got them all worried about - at least for him and maybe his friends. 

But Sam was planning something insane, and Blaine had to talk him down if the others hadn't already succeeded. 

Blaine lifted his phone again and-

The bathroom door quietly swished open.

Blaine's heart thumped.

'Oh my god... ohmygodohmygod-' he thought.

The phone in his hands burned. Would whoever had just entered the bathroom hear him if he began to text again? Blaine didn't know, but if Sam were still planning on leaving the choir room-

He had to know that it wasn't safe to do that.

Blaine closed his eyes, said a silent prayer he wouldn't remember later, and typed, 'someones here'. 

He heard the stall at the front of the row open and soft footsteps. Blaine didn't breathe.

The next stall opened, and Blaine made a fist and bit it to keep from making any sort of noise. This was confirmation... Whoever had walked into the restroon hadn't come in to hide. They were looking for someone - _anyone_. 

'Sam dont' Blaine began to type, but his fingers shook so much that he hit send before he finished. The stall right next to his opened, and Blaine braced his hands against the sides of his stall, vision beginning to waver. He could hardly comprehend what was happening, but he had some inkling of an idea at the back of his head, that when his stall door opened he could kick towards where the shooter's weapon might be. Maybe it would be useless, but maybe he would get lucky and-

The stall door flung open more quickly than Blaine was ready for, a rifle was pointed straight at Blaine...

And then the man in the S.W.A.T. uniform saw that Blaine wasn't armed and lowered his weapon, hurriedly and silently gesturing for Blaine to come out of his crouch.

Blaine nearly sobbed, his relief was so great. He sagged off of the toilet more than climbed, letting the S.W.A.T. Guy lead him out into the hall.

The next several moments are as blurred and irretrievable in Blaine's brain as the more mundane parts of that day. The next thing he remembers is being hugged by Mr. Schue upon being escorted into the choir room. He had just realized that he was crying when hands then tugged him out of Schue's embrace, and Blaine got a glimpse of Sam's tear-streaked face before he was being wrapped up in Sam's arms tighter than he's ever been. 

"It's okay... you're okay," Sam kept saying, and Blaine nodded, sloppy face turned unashamedly into the crook of Sam's neck, breathing in his comforting scent, but Blaine got the feeling that Sam wasn't actually talking to him. Sam's voice kept breaking and his chest shook...

Maybe it shouldn't surprise Blaine - what Sam's just revealed. When they talked about what happened, Artie kept giving Blaine these looks. Like he was waiting for Blaine to pick up on something that Blaine just wasn't getting... He told Blaine that Sam had paled when Blaine texted 'someones here.' And that Sam put up such a fight when Blaine sent a half-written text and then went silent that both Mr. Schue and Coach Beiste had to hold him back from breaking out of the choir room. But Blaine couldn't figure out what Artie had been trying to tell him - other than that Sam is an amazing friend, and a courageous person - and even now, Blaine can't quite believe what he's hearing.

Sam says that he's had an _epiphany_... That their "near-death" experience has made him realize something he says has been staring him in the face from the beginning.

Blaine can't let himself hope that Sam means it - not when Sam was heartbroken over a girl just a few days ago.

"But... what about Brittany?"

They're alone in the choir room. Sam walked Blaine in here at the end of an odd day of watching Sam start to tell him something, over and over again... and then stop abruptly. Blaine kept catching Sam staring at him through the corner of his eye, and eventually he asked Sam what gives. Sam said they needed to talk - privately - and as soon as they were in private, Sam dropped his bomb. 

Sam leans back in his chair. He and Blaine are sitting so close, their knees brush whenever one of them moves, and Blaine's heart jumps in his throat. 

"Dude. You didn't really think Brit broke up with me for a _cat_ , did you?" Sam asks and smiles.

Blaine smiles back, because the fact that this is _Brittany_ they're talking about is answer enough. Brittany is amazing and lovable... and totally unlimited by the demands of logic that govern most people.

Then Sam's face goes serious, and Blaine pulse picks up again. "Blaine, I mean it. This isn't just... I don't know, some kind of post traumatic stress freak-out or something," Sam says. "I've been thinking about this for a while. I just... needed a kick in the ass, I guess, to do something about it. And not being able to get to you - to see you and help you when I thought there was a shooter out there who could hurt you... That definitely felt like an ass-kicking," Sam continues.

Blaine feels like all the air's been sucked out of the room. Despite himself, his hopes have grown until there isn't even room for breathing.

"Sam, you were devastated when Brittany dumped you," Blaine almost whispers, wishing he could just not fight this. After the shooting, after everything, the temptation to just let himself be happy - for however long it lasts - is so strong...

But Sam gives Blaine something better than that. He leans back into their small huddle, and puts his hands over Blaine's where Blaine has been unconsciously gripping his own knees.

The contact sends little shockwaves of feeling through Blaine's whole body.

"I wasn't _devastated_ , man," Sam says. "I was scared... Of telling you that the crush you've got on me? Has _nothing_ on the crush I've got on you."

Sam smiles again, although his smile looks nervous. He probably mistakes the blank look on Blaine's face for surprise, because he says, "I know... It sounds kinda silly now... After being _really_ scared, for real, of something like a school shooter. But-"

"You're wrong."

Blaine can't work his way up to an explanation. This week has been too much of an emotional roller-coaster ride. He has to just part his lips and let words fall out. 

Blaine shakes his hands free, and he sees Sam's face fall, but it's alright. Because then Blaine's taking Sam's face in his hands and _showing_ him what he's too flustered and thankful to say. 

"My crush could, like, flatten yours... It's grown to _mammoth_ proportions," Blaine says after they kiss, eyes bright and mouth curling up, happy. He's too giddy, in fact, to care if he sounds ridiculous. 

Sam doesn't seem to mind. He laughs out loud and the next kiss is his doing. 

"We'll see about that," he says against Blaine's lips.

And they will. 

Blaine doesn't remember everything that happened that day that was so awful and yet brought his glee family even closer to one another - that brought Sam and him to one another. But it doesn't matter. Because they've kept the best things about that day with them, and the worst things... They hope to learn to forget, together.


End file.
